CONSIDER THIS: TESTIMONY

   TESTIMONY….”And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death….Revelation 12:11

CONSIDER THIS: The word “Testimony” means the giving of evidence in support of facts. In personal terms, it serves as evidence of a life completely converted, rejuvenated and turned around by Jesus Christ. If a person does NOT have a testimony, they have not been saved. This may sound rather harsh, but the Truth is meant to both set a person free, as well as to inspire them towards doing the right thing…..as this verse plainly states. We can ONLY overcome/win/defeat the enemy and have eternal victory in Jesus via the precious, supernatural Blood of the Lamb of God, for the forgiveness of ALL our sins and the substitutionary atonement thereof.

ACTION:  Do YOU have a testimony? Can you “testify” under oath…give evidence to…and speak publicly about HOW and WHEN Jesus Christ changed your life? Can you? Our very eternal future has been bought at a price and we immediately know it in our very being. So now, that we are keeping, maybe not daily, but somewhat, a note in our Bible or prayer journal, can we act on this – write out your testimony OR tell someone this week, how Jesus Christ removed you from the Dominion of Darkness into the Kingdom of His Marvelous Light.

Father in the Name of Jesus, I pray for that divine appointment to share my testimony with someone this week, about what You have done for, in and through me, because Jesus is my Lord and my Savior. It could be, Lord, a family member, or friend or someone completely unknown, I pray for that opportunity to witness for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, in order that both the hearer and myself, may be edified and the Name of the Lord will be greatly to be praised, in Jesus’ Name amen.

A LIFE LIKE AN EVER-FLOWING STREAM

..."let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream (Amos 5:24)

This sounds like a beautiful kind of quote, doesn't it? It could even end up as a meme or in a Daystream greeting card that sells at Hobby Lobby or Walmart. But one look at what precedes it should send some shivers down the spines of many church attendees; faithful believers and even the growing number of "nones" these days. (The "Nones" being those who believe in absolutely nothing and they are the growing number of millennials and generations X, Y and Z).

Look again at the Lord Himself said in the preceding verses:

"Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord!  Why would you have the day of the Lord? (verse 18)

"Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light,  and gloom with no brightness in it? (verse 20)

"I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies" (verse 21)

"Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them" (verse 22a)

"and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them" (verse 22b)

"Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen" (verse 23)

Now let's look at the words highlighted in yellow and check their meaning:

Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! - Are you really ready for Judgment Day? It begins the split second just before we die, and when heaven or hell becomes real. if you are not certain of your eternal standing with God, do NOT wish to leave this life right now, no matter how difficult you and I may think it is, how tough it is or how financially broke you are. This is nothing compared to the eternity a person faces in hell, FOREVER, away from the presence of our Holy God. Those who believe in nothing, especially, should beware that coming day, because as sure as the sun rises in the east, that day is fast approaching.

Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light - all through the Bible, there are ample warnings of what the "Day of the Lord" really means. It is even called "terrible day of the Lord" in Joel 2:31, Zephaniah 1:14-15 and Acts 2:20. In case some Christians are wondering what that means, Jesus gave a preview which should scare us all. In Matthew 7:21-23 He warns that not everyone who calls Him "Lord, Lord, will be allowed into Heaven"... Not everyone who teaches Sunday School, goes on Missions Trips, feeds the hungry and even preaches from the pulpit will get into heaven. Why? Because they were never forgiven or repented or born again.

Therefore the Lord says this of those whose service in the church is all about what they do, how they feel and what they get out of their "Kingdom Word". God says:

I hate, I despise.....I take no delight (in your "work for me" in verse 21). He says "I will not accept them......"I will not look upon them" (verse 22b)

"Take away...I will not listen" (verse 23).

Those are hard words, and while many today do not, will not and have no interest in finding out if they are even true or not, if we could, ask those who have lived before us and are now forever separated from God. The great (in terms of man's greatness) French author Voltaire lived around the time of the French Revolution. One of his primary goals in life was to do away with not just the Bible, but Christianity. He predicted Christianity will be dead within a hundred years of his life. He hated Christ. He disputed the divinity of Christ and called for the abolishing of Sunday, so Christianity could be gotten rid of. On his deathbed, the priest in attendance asked Voltaire one more time, to renounce the devil. Voltaire's reply was "this is not time to make new enemies"! His house was later sold to the French Bible Society.

After the Lord gave all those warnings to His people through the ancient prophet Amos, one which still is in effect today, He gives an opening for us, if we can JUST SEE IT! Our Heavenly Father exhorts us to "let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream". In other words, if we just live right, according to the teachings and precepts of the Lord Jesus Christ, our lives would be like an "ever-flowing stream". This stream is like ones we see rushing down the side of a crisp green fertile mountain, where the cool clear water just rushes over the rocks down to the valley below....and never stops. It flows forever.

The Christian whose identity is found in Christ, who is redeemed, sealed by the Holy Spirit and living in the fruits of this Same Spirit, Who is God, will always be a constant source and font of peace, love, joy and grace to all around him/her - day afer day, night after night - year after year. This is the choice we have. The "Nones" and those who play games with God will face ALL of those things highlighted in yellow above, because they are written as a last warning for them. Those who fully rely on God, in Christ, will reflect His Justice and His mercies and love, which endures forever.

MEN OF GOD - ENDANGERED SPECIES OR ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL?

Exactly ten years ago, I did a 75-minute seminar at the long-running Iron Sharpens Iron National Men's conference (St. Louis) called "DEPRESSION- THE SILENT KILLER OF MEN". This followed a couple other teaching workshops I had done at Focus on the Family, Colorado Springs on "LIVING WITH POWER" based on the first book I ever wrote, called TWO MINUTE WARNING.

Both topics may seem completely opposite to each other and in a sense, they are. Both - living the life God has called His men to live and just barely breathing, after getting beaten down by everything ungodly is the opposite ends of the same slide rule of life. 

One way of living is natural and ordained by God. It does, however, come with a caveat. This way of life is the result of a personal relationship with God, through Jesus Christ as Lord of one's life. There is no other way. What results from this Father-son relationship is God giving us a huge measure of His power. Anyone of us who is born-again can testify it to be true.

He says in John 1:12 (all Scriptures are NASB - New American Standard Bible) "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His Name". There it is - we, who have received Christ have the right/authority to operate in Kingdom Power - right here on earth. If this is done according to Scripture, we can have life and life abundantly.

The opposite is true. We already know that those who have rejected Christ can still have what they think is a perfect life, here on earth while covering up their emptiness with things and fun in the sun right up, until their last days.  However, there are many in the middle who live lives of quiet desperation. They may appear to be normal on the outside, but then plaster over their wounds and emptiness with golf, all kinds of physical pursuits (including illicit affairs etc.) and alcohol. Some fall into gambling and pharmaceuticals, even those of an illegal nature.

In the fall of 2017, I worked with a fellow member of the Gideon Bible Society as we handed out hundreds of college New Testaments, at what was once a Christian university. Three months later, I heard that this man, who was once a pilot of a big corporation, went into his garage, turned on the engine, sealed the garage door and took his own life. There was not thought of the effect on his young family (he was in his low 50's) or testimony. I later heard that he never recovered from being stripped of his job as a pilot and getting grounded. While he was a Christian man, his focus was all wrong - it was on what he DID for a living, not WHO HE WAS in Christ.

Here is where so many men lose it. They may know somewhere in the back of their minds, that there is a purpose to life and it is not the 9 to 5, the mortgage or the college bills. It is preparing for Eternity. Too many ignore the warning signs and especially the Warning Signs from Jesus Christ and the Bible that it is appointed for man to die once, and then the Judgment. This is real. This is some real stuff. 

I am not a professional medical or any such thing as a psychologist. But I know how to study human nature and through the Grace and Spirit of God, I know how the Bible and the Lord has the answers for EVERYTHING which ails humankind. If we would just listen, trust, obey and pray. Amen.
NEXT: WHY MEN DON'T PRAY

DEEP SEA PRAYING - FINAL SESSION

JONAH'S GETS 2ND CHANCE

“Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to You; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the LORD” (Jonah 2:8-9)

This great prophet/evangelist knows first- hand that of which he speaks.  He now has an intimate knowledge of Holy God, never mind the fact that he was prophesying in the pagan Northern Kingdom of Israel about this same God, to Jeroboam II. Jonah was in a place where the majority of mankind goes and never returns and saw the Temple of the LORD, Who restores Jonah due to his own kind grace, mercy, compassion and long-suffering! He has seen the Holiness of God and knows that those who practice idolatry…those who bow down to the 300 million pagan idols of Eastern religion… those who idolize culture or celebrity or self – they have ALL traded in Faith in the one true God for the vile and perishing things of this temporary world.  They have abandoned not just the font of all true knowledge but the Only One Whose love is strong and never changes.

This is a major condemnation from someone who was in the abode of the lost with this spiritual eyes wide open! All the lost of this world (which is the majority) and even those who profess to be Christians are stunningly unaware of the true nature of Holy God and His Righteousness. The Lord is disrespected all over western celebrity culture and then paid lip service as if He is somebody’s crazy uncle or kind grandfather to be acknowledged occasionally on Sunday morning or at the end of a political speech. Only those who have had a major life-changing and transformative encounter with the Father or more likely – the Son Jesus Christ – can grasp the power and presence of the Almighty to the point we cannot help but stand in awe, bow down and just live a life of repentance and ingrained worship.

This is the kind of sacrifice that Jonah speaks of here where his attitude of gratitude is in the metaphorical stratosphere. He is so much in debt at the mercy and goodness of God that he is offering to do whatever it takes. This is the true meaning of discipleship, following on Jesus’ command that you and I cannot be His disciple unless we are willing to “take up our own crosses daily” and follow Him…(or we must decrease that He might increase).  Jonah vowed to pay or repay the Lord for saving and rescuing Him but like us, we can never BEGIN to repay God for what He hath done for us.  We can make as many vows as we wish and not fulfill a third of them. Therefore we should not swear any oath before God unless we intend to follow up with it one hundred percent of the time.  Now Jonah did do what he set out to do – he evangelized Nineveh and spent his life teaching them. But it took a lot for him to love those people. Just read Jonah Chapter 4.

Finally, the hero of this prayer, one of the most revelatory and power in the entire Bible, declares “Salvation belongs to the Lord”! He knew this first hand. We can do nothing – He can do everything. Jonah also knows he has been given a second chance. He proclaims Salvation while showing the proper gratitude because of the Radical Grace God has shown and given to him. This same Grace is available today for anyone and everyone. All we have to do is ask. We ask with humility and faith and with a repentant heart. This way, we too will be able to proclaim "SALVATION BELONGS TO THE LORD"!

THE KINGDOM IS FOR A CHILD... PART 2

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3 ESV)

All through the ages, it has always been easier to teach a child about the Ways and Wonders of the Lord than an adult. This is the way the Lord intended it (see Proverbs 22:6 "Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.) We all know this from our days either in Sunday school. Many of us, including my wife and myself, have taught or are still in children's ministry. Their joy and wonder and innocence about God are still putting hardened young people and adults to shame!

As Ken Ham and Britt Beamer's research discovered a few years ago, in the book Already Gone, by the time these same kids get to 6th grade and up, we lose them to the world! Not all, of course, but the majority who make up our youth groups. The current corrupt American culture and education systems have succeeded in training up our kids in the way they should NOT go and God will punish those people...and our children if we do not try to teach them as Jesus instructed Nicodemus here in John chapter 3.

The term He used in John 3:3 is mind boggling and puts a lie to religion by works, period. Most Christians have no clue what "born again" really means. The actual MEANING of the words Jesus used are "gennao" and "anóthen". This literally means that "unless I (Jesus) brings you forth ANEW from Heaven MYSELF you are not a child of the Kingdom of Heaven"!!!!! THINK ABOUT THIS FOR A LONG TIME TODAY!

Does this describe you? Has Jesus Himself literally come down into your inner person and made you new, a new creation, by birthing your soul, as a new child into His Kingdom? Please examine yourself today and see if ye be in the Faith. Your future residence depends on it. Amen

DAY 12- CAN PRAYER SAVE AMERICA?

Yesterday we noted what praying fully engaged with The Lord- Body, mind and soul, is basically! Oswald Chambers said "spiritual relationship is not a step by step process...you're either in or you're out!"

That's very well said because we know that God does not hear the prayer of an unrighteous person, unless he/she is crying out for forgiveness. So the prayer that qualifies is from one who is in- or born again, period.

This may explain why most people in our churches, including pastors, only give lip service to prayer. This is why we have had several dedicated days and weeks or prayer in the past few months - most people calling themselves Christians in church are not in real "spiritual relationship"!

So, Heavenly Father, I pray that each and everyone of us will know that we know that our position in you is secure and that before we come to the sunset of our lives, that we fully comprehend the reality and meaning of our salvation, before we can even begin to praise and pray to You, for the deliverance of our people, from the bondage of sin and despair, in the Mighty Name of Jesus, Amen.